American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention records, 1828-1983 (bulk 1828-1940).

ArchivalResource

American Institute of the City of New York. American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention records, 1828-1983 (bulk 1828-1940).

American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention records, 1828-1983 (bulk 1828-1940).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/475904254

Records, 1828-1983 (bulk 1828-1940). The collection documents the administrative functioning of the organization, as well as its efforts to promote American Institute objectives through Annual Fairs, publications, adult programs and lectures, children's science fairs, and a children's exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair. In the nineteenth century, the Institute - its full title was the American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention - promoted American technical innovation, and campaigned in favor of protectionist policies, to encourage domestic production. One project of interest to it was the development of a domestic silk industry in the United States. It held Annual Fairs and awarded prizes to American artisans, manufacturers, agriculturalists, and artists. The fairs were well attended by the public, and drew some eminent exhibitors; in 1842, Samuel F.B. Morse won a gold medal for his display of the telegraph. Interest in the fairs waned in the 1890s, and the Institute became less active, until it changed its mission in the 1920s, to concentrate on sponsoring science education and the popularization of scientific research. It organized lectures and radio broadcasts on science, which came to an end sometime in the 1940s. In 1928 it held the first of its annual Children's Science Fairs. In 1930 it merged with the New York Electrical Society. During the 1930s, it developed relationships with two corporate sponsors, Westinghouse and IBM, and it sponsored a children's exhibit in the Westinghouse Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair. Thereafter, until the early 1980s, it concerned itself primarily with producing student science fairs; the participants in the fairs were students in New York City schools. Awards to students were funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with which the Amrican Insitute was by this time affiliated. There are many types of material in the collection. The pre-1920 Annual Fair material includes bound volumes and foldered material related to the planning of the American Institute fairs, as well as information on the judges, exhibitions, and awards presented. Administrative material includes correspondence, reports, minutes, and membership information. Correspondence deals with organization of the Annual Fairs; material from 1859 deals with the fire that destroyed the New York Crystal Palace, an Institute-owned property that had been the venue for its fairs in the late 1850s. Some early correspondence deals with non-administrative issues of concern to the Institute, such as inventions and patent law, while post-Civil War material deals extensively with the Institute's finances and real estate holdings, and includes mortgages, leases, insurance policies, contracts, etc. There are also reports from various Institute committees, dealing both with administrative matters and with inventions and agricultural and technological issues. The post-1920 material includes correspondence, press releases, and planning information regarding the children's fairs and programs, as well as adult lectures and workshops. The collection also includes various materials related to the design and operation of the American Institute children's exhibit in the Westinghouse pavilion of the 1939 World's Fair. The Administrative subseries for the pre-1920 and the post-1920 material contain bound volumes and foldered material of correspondence, reports, membership information, and financial papers that detail executive decisions and the general operation of the organization. The collection also contains pamphlets and publications; scrapbooks, some containing newspaper clippings, some containing printed ephemera such as circulars, pamphlets, tickets, forms and announcements related to Institute events, as well as some correspondence; visual materials, mostly photographs and prints; and artifacts of the American Institute, such as pins, ribbons, medals and medal cases, nineteenth century ballot/ticket, voting and cash boxes, printing blocks and wax seals, exhibit labels, and a letter opener.

272 linear feet (491 boxes and 508 bound volumes)

Churchill County Museum